A match made in heaven

New to the Naim family coming over from Cyrus, I purchased a new Uniti Star a few months ago. Whilst selling the Cyrus set up, I initially decided to keep the Spendor A5 speakers to see if the marriage with the Star worked, well not really a good match, bass not very defined and mid range very "hit and miss’ depending upon the type of music being listened too, so in reading many of there posts here on the "speakers for the ‘Uniti Star’ I took the plunge and purchased a pair of the ProAc D20R floor standing speakers. What a difference instantly apparent in all area’s of the listening spectrum, In my personal opinion, and I do appreciate that not every one has the same listening preferences, the match between the Uniti Star and the D20R speakers is one I can only refer to as a “match made in heaven”. Thank you to all on this forum that recommended the ProAc speakers.

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Welcome to the forums @Trev1

The Spendor A5 is a wonderful speaker but it might need a little bit more power than the Star has to offer to really shine. Good choice you made with the ProAc, that ribbon tweeter is beautiful and it seems like a great match for your current setup.

Isn’t it great when you find something that just works together - I’m sure it sounds super. Getting shot of the A5s was a great idea - truly dreadful speakers fit only for the skip.

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I really don’t like the sound of the PMC speakers I’ve heard in dealers’ demo rooms HH, but as for consigning them all to the skip…? Given there are quite a few Spendor owners on this forum, I can only assume your throwaway remark is meant to be ‘tongue in cheek’ rather than a serious critique?

Not at all. They are in my view truly dreadful. I had the misfortune to own some. It’s a mistake I learned from. I’m sure other Spendors are delightful, but not the A5s. On second thoughts, a skip might be too good for them.

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I’m with HH on this. I tried some A5s when I had a Superuniti and they sounded truly dreadful. So bad that I thought they must have been faulty, so I took them to my dealer who hooked them up to a better separates system. They sounded awful there too, so we tried his demo pair, but they were just as bad.
Surprising given Spendor’s reputation, but I’ve never heard such a dull sound from any system.

Yes I’m sure the A5 speaker is a good speaker , they have been with me for 6 or 7 years, but I guess not quite a good match for the Naim, as they were for the Cyrus. The ProAc speakers absolutely shine with the Naim and i’m so glad I chose them.

I had A5’s and got on very well with them.

With a non Naim amp they were slow and ploddy but worked beautifully with a 202/200 fronted with an NDX and even better when a 282 and Hicap DR were added.

Despite the rear port I had them close to the wall with no boom or excessive bass which is a common issue.

I must have been lucky.

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Congratulations on your new ProAc D20’s!

I believe Naim & ProAc is very nice match from my experience. Having run a pair of D2’s with a Nait XS2 and now a pair of D30RS with my SN2.

Hopefully you can post a photo in the ‘System Pics 2020’ thread.

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Some dealers in France were selling Spendor with Naim…Less today I feel.

Hi seakayaker, thanks for reading my post great to hear from you up there in Seattle. Please see my picture now posted in “System Pics 2020”.

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Congratulation @Trev1 from another ProAc user and Seattleite (albeit Part-time).

Thanks marcusman, appreciate the greeting. So what ProAc speakers do you have? Would be interested to hear if you have any comments or thoughts on the speaker cable?
Whilst I have the basic Chord cables I would be interested in maybe upgrading in the new year if it was felt without spending an absolute fortune I could gain some audible benefit.

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Hi Seakayaker, just wondered if you have any advice on speaker cables for my system,? I have the basic Chord cables right now and wonder if any improvement could be made with a simple upgrade not costing a fortune.
Thanks

I use Naim Naca5 speaker cables. I haven’t tried to branch out much beyond Naim for Cables/Interconnects when I did, I didn’t care much for the results. I have the D2R’s…

When I had my SuperUniti/ProAc D20r system I used standard Chord Epic cables, which sounded pretty good. I demoed them against NACA5 and found them much better to my ears.

Thank you timmo your comments are most welcome, I will certainly be making a list of recommendations, and trying to find a dealer local to me who can possibly loan me a few of those different cables to try out.

I use the same speakers with my Atom… really pleased with them, nice to hear others are enjoying the Naim pairing too!

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I have the D20R’s too, and am very pleased with them with my classic components. Saw your picture on System Pics (mine are about 100 posts above). I’m going to move mine a bit further away from the wall when I get chance to see what difference that makes.

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I feel like a red-headed stepchild with my D2R’s… haha :smiley: